In general, researches on an electrode active material, an electrolyte, a separator and a collector etc. are carried out as researches related to a nonaqueous electrolyte battery. Among these, many researches are carried out on the electrode active material, the electrolyte and the separator. In relation to the collector, the researches remain remarkably extremely partial since the material constituting the collector is limited to a metal or a semimetal due to the basic property that the collector must efficiently collect electricity generated in an electrode.
Al or the like, for example, is known as a metallic material satisfying this basic property necessary for the collector. A nonaqueous electrolyte battery employing Al foil as a collector with an electrode active material layer formed on the Al foil is known in general. This nonaqueous electrolyte battery is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 7-70327, for example.
The aforementioned conventional collector consisting of the Al foil has excellent collection performance, while the characteristic thereof inconveniently varies with the type of the employed electrolyte. When employing an organic electrolytic solution in which LiPF6 is dissolved, for example, it is possible to use the collector at a high potential of 6 V. When employing an organic electrolytic solution in which a solute other than LiPF6 is dissolved, however, it has been difficult to use the collector at a high potential since elution of the collector takes place at around 3.5 V. Particularly in an organic electrolytic solution in which LiN(CF3SO2)2 or LiN(C2F5SO2)2 is dissolved, collection itself has been difficult since elution of Al which is the element constituting the collector increases. Consequently, there has been such a problem that it is difficult to widen the selection range for electrolytes when employing Al foil as the collector since there are a large number of electrolytes which are difficult to use.